Professional era

The 1996–97 National Basketball Festival ended in January 1997, and the inaugural KBL season began one month later in February. The National Basketball Festival remains an amateur-only tournament to this day and is contested by university reserve teams, amateur teams and the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps's basketball team.

Sponsoring companies were given the option to register their basketball teams in the upcoming professional league. KDB and IBK opted to sell their teams; however, their new owners chose to re-start the teams as brand new franchises, only acquiring their players and staff but not inheriting the team's legacy or historical records.^[2][3] The founding teams were Busan Kia Enterprise, Gyeongnam LG Sakers, Daegu Tongyang Orions, Suwon Samsung Thunders, Wonju Naray Blue Bird, Anyang SBS Stars, Incheon Daewoo Zeus, Daejeon Hyundai Dynat, and Gwangju Nasan Flamans. Some of the teams, such as Anyang SBS Stars, had been based in Seoul but chose to move to another city. The plan was to have a team based in each geographical region rather than only centralized in the Seoul Capital Area.^[4] The 1997–98 season was the first full season played and the tenth team, Cheongju SK Knights, was added as a member. The KBL has had ten teams ever since.^[5]

The early years of the league were plagued by the financial instability, exacerbated by the 1997 Asian financial crisis which had impacted South Korea especially hard. As with other domestic sports leagues, the KBL was not immune to the economic fall-out. The KBL had difficulty finding a league sponsor for the 1997–98 season while teams were forced to cut costs.^[6][7] Between 1997 and 2001, five of the ten teams had changed ownership due to financial problems.

KBL Cup

The KBL Cup was first introduced in 2020 as a pre-season competition for all teams to test out their strengths before the commencement of the regular season.

It is generally held in September. Aside from the participation of all 10 teams of the KBL league, Sangmu Basketball Team also participates in the KBL Cup, making it a total of 11 teams.^[9]

Regular season

The regular season runs from October to early April. Each team plays against the other nine teams six times (3 home and 3 away). A total of 54 games are played in six rounds.

The annual KBL Award Ceremony takes place right after the end of the regular season.

Teams which failed to qualify for the post-season playoffs take a short break before commencing their off-season training to prepare them for the upcoming season.

Post-season playoffs

The playoffs usually begin a week after the end of the regular season.^[10]

Only the top six teams in the regular season standings advance to the post-season playoffs.^[11]

The qualification of the six teams for either the quarter-finals or semi-finals of the playoffs are determined by their regular season standings. The teams ranked from third to sixth qualify for the quarter-finals, and the teams ranked first and second earn an automatic advancement to the semi-finals.

The quarter-finals are played in a best-of-three format. The two winning teams of the quarter-finals then advance to the semi-finals.

The semi-finals are played in a best-of-five format. The two winning teams of the semi-finals then compete for the KBL championship title in the finals.

The finals are played in a best-of-seven format.^[12]

KBL All-Star Game

The KBL All-Star Game is held in mid-January every year. The event is usually held in Seoul, except for multiple occasions where it was held outside of Seoul (2007 in Ulsan, 2017 in Busan, and 2021 in Daegu).

Based on the 2021–22 All-Star Game format, five players from each of the ten teams are nominated for the All-Star fan vote. Only the top 24 players in the fan vote standings are selected to participate in the All-Star Game. The two players with the most number of votes form their respective teams by recruiting eleven players each, regardless of their original teams.^[13]

Finals

Titles by club

Awards

The KBL awards ceremony is held annually at the end of the regular season. As of the 2020–21 season, the following honours are awarded:^[15]

• Most Valuable Player (MVP)
• Rookie of the Year
• Foreign Player of the Year
• Best 5
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Defensive Best 5
• Sixth Man Award
• Skill Development Award
• Fair Play Award
• Play of the Season
• Popularity Award
• Coach of the Year

The awards ceremony takes place at the conclusion of the regular season, before the playoffs begin. The Playoffs MVP is only awarded at the conclusion of the final Championship game.

Top scorer

More information Year, Player ...

Year	Player	Team	Points per game
1997	Carl Ray Harris	Wonju Naray Blue Bird	32.3[16]
1997–98	Larry Davis	Anyang SBS Stars	30.6[17]
1998–99	Bernard Blunt	Changwon LG Sakers	29.9[18]
1999–2000	Eric Eberz	Gwangju Goldbank Clickers	27.7[19]
2000–01	Dennis Edwards	Anyang SBS Stars	33.4[20]
2001–02	Eric Eberz (2)	Yeosu Korea Tender Prumi	28.3[19]
2002–03	Leon Trimmingham	Seoul SK Knights	27.4[21]
2003–04	Charles Minlend	Jeonju KCC Egis	27.1[22]
2004–05	Nate Johnson	Daegu Orions	28.7[23]
2005–06	Dontae' Jones	Anyang KT&G Kites	29.2[24]
2006–07	Pete Mickeal	Daegu Orions	35.1[25]
2007–08	Terrence Shannon	Incheon ET Land Black Slamer	27.2[26]
2008–09	Terrence Leather	Seoul Samsung Thunders	27.5[27]
2009–10	Greg Stevenson	Changwon LG Sakers	21.9[28]
2010–11	Aaron Haynes	Seoul Samsung Thunders	23.1[29]
2011–12	Aaron Haynes (2)	Changwon LG Sakers	27.6[29]
2012–13	Jasper Johnson	Busan KT Sonicboom	19.7[30]
2013–14	Tyler Wilkerson	Jeonju KCC Egis	21.5[31]
2014–15	Davon Jefferson	Changwon LG Sakers	21.3[32]
2015–16	Andre Emmett	Jeonju KCC Egis	26.2[33]
2016–17	Andre Emmett (2)	Jeonju KCC Egis	28.8[34]
2017–18	David Simon	Anyang KGC	26.1[35]
2018–19	James Mays	Changwon LG Sakers	26.6[36]

Close

Domestic players

Domestic players, defined as possessing South Korean citizenship according to FIBA laws, are recruited through an annual rookie draft. The draft was held since 1998. In 2009, an ethnic draft was introduced to allow the recruitment of players who have acquired South Korean nationality, or either of their parents is a Korean.^[37] Players recruited through ethnic drafts are waived from being counted as an import player. However, due to the controversial nature of the recruitment rules and the backlash, the ethnic draft was eventually abolished in 2013.^[38]

Import players

From 2018, all teams are allowed to freely select their import players, subject to a "two-import" quota per team and a salary cap of $700,000. Only one foreign player is allowed to play on court in every quarter.

Asian player quota

In a move to further develop the quality of basketball in the country, the "Asian Player Quota" programme was introduced ahead of the 2020–21 season for Japanese players.^[39] This programme allows each team to recruit one Japanese player (excluding naturalized, dual citizenship and mixed race players) from Japan's B.League.^[40] Players recruited under the "Asian Player Quota" programme are excluded from the foreign player quota, and included in the domestic player salary cap. Wonju DB Promy became the first team in the league to recruit a Japanese player, as they inked a one-year deal with Taichi Nakamura.^[41] Ahead of the 2022–23 season, the programme was extended to Filipino players (owns a Philippine passport and both parents must have either Philippine citizenship or passport).^[42] In June 2022, Daegu KOGAS Pegasus becomes the first team to recruit a Filipino player, as they announced a two-year deal with SJ Belangel.^[43]